ATOMIC ENERGY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 14, 21 August 1946, Page 4

ATOMIC ENERGY

WITH the reaching of science into the fringes of the atomic age, the world has entered upon a daydream of industry, driven by atomic power, almost within grasp. In a statement made to the London Daily Telegraph, Professor Albert Einstein said: To give any estimate of when atomic energy can be applied to constructive purposes is impossible. What now is known is only how to use a fairly large quantity of uranium. The use of quantities sufficiently small to operate, say, a car or an aeroplane, is as yet impossible. No doubt it will be achieved but nobody can say when. Nor can one predict when materials more common than uranium can be used to supply atomic energy. Presumably all used for this purpose will be among the heavier elements of high atomic weight. Those elements are relatively scarce because of their lesser stability. Most of these materials may already have disappeared by radioactive disintegration. So,, though the release of atomic energy can be, and no doubt will be, a great boon, to mankind, that may not be for some time.